The second day of the tournament intermission began exactly the way Ryu O'Hara preferred: with absolute, undisturbed silence.
He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his high-end hotel room, a pristine white microfiber cloth spread out on the glass coffee table in front of him. On the cloth lay the disassembled pieces of Eclipse Nidhogg. The dark violet energy layer, the heavy forge disc, and the jagged rubber Phantom driver were laid out in a perfect row.
Ryu held a small bottle of specialized polishing compound. He applied a single drop to a swab and began meticulously cleaning the contact points of the forge disc. It wasn't about aesthetics. It was about eliminating microscopic imperfections that could create unwanted air resistance during high-speed rotation.
He worked in total quiet for twenty minutes. When he finished, he reassembled Nidhogg, the locking mechanism clicking into place with a satisfying, solid snap.
He stood up, slipping the Beyblade into his pocket. He needed a replacement bottle of the compound. The one he had was nearly empty, and he wasn't going to risk running out before the quarter-finals.
Thirty minutes later, Ryu walked through the sliding glass doors of a massive, multi-level hobby store in the bustling Akihabara district. The store was a chaotic maze of brightly colored boxes, promotional displays, and bladers crowding the aisles. It was loud, bright, and completely lacking in personal space.
Ryu navigated the aisles with his usual effortless precision, slipping past groups of kids without brushing a single shoulder. He reached the maintenance aisle and scanned the shelves.
"I'm just saying, if we pool our allowance, we can buy the reinforced grip, and we can take turns using it!"
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, Honcho. You can't share a grip in the middle of a tournament bracket!"
Ryu paused. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, letting out a very slow, very quiet breath. He opened them and looked down the aisle.
Valt Aoi and Rantaro Kiyama were standing in front of a display case, arguing loudly. Daigo Kurogami was standing slightly behind them, looking entirely exhausted by the conversation.
Beside Daigo was a boy Ryu had never seen before. He had spiky black hair and a green bandana. He was entirely silent. But what caught Ryu's attention wasn't the boy. It was the two stuffed dog puppets he was wearing on his hands—one blue and angry-looking, the other brown and friendly.
Ryu stepped up to the shelf adjacent to them and picked up a bottle of high-grade bearing lubricant. He intended to pay and leave before he was spotted.
"Hey! It's Ryu!" Valt shouted, his voice echoing down the aisle.
The escape window officially closed.
Valt ran over, immediately invading Ryu's personal space with a massive grin. "What are you doing here? Are you upgrading your Bey? Did you come to hang out?"
"I am buying lubricant," Ryu replied flatly, holding up the small bottle. "And no."
Rantaro walked over, fanning himself with his paper fan despite the store's heavy air conditioning. "You really just pop up everywhere, don't you? We were just looking at some new gear. Valt destroyed his grip during practice yesterday."
"I didn't destroy it!" Valt protested. "It just... rapidly disassembled itself!"
"You pulled so hard the plastic cracked, Valt," Daigo corrected quietly, stepping forward. He gestured to the boy with the puppets. "Ryu, this is Ken Midori. He's in Block D. Ken, this is the guy we told you about."
Ken didn't speak. He raised his right hand. The blue, angry-looking puppet leaned forward, its felt mouth opening and closing as Ken threw his voice perfectly.
"So this is the guy who thinks he's a brick wall?!" the blue puppet barked, sounding incredibly gruff. "He doesn't look that tough to me! I bet King Kerbeus could bite right through that defense!"
Rantaro winced, ready for Ryu to get annoyed. Daigo tensed slightly.
Ryu looked at Ken. Then he looked down at the blue puppet. He didn't blink. He didn't smile. He leaned in slightly, locking his mismatched pink and grey eyes directly onto the puppet's felt eyes.
"I am Ryu," he said directly to the puppet, completely ignoring Ken. "And your stiching is fraying on the left ear. You should have that repaired before you attempt to bite anything."
The blue puppet froze. Ken's eyes went wide.
Rantaro's jaw dropped. "Wait... are you... are you actually talking to Keru?"
"Is there someone else I should be addressing?" Ryu asked, his tone perfectly serious. He looked at the brown puppet on Ken's left hand. "Hello."
Ken raised his left hand. The brown puppet, Besu, spoke in a much softer, higher-pitched voice. "H-Hi! It's nice to meet you! Keru is just a little grumpy today!"
"Understood," Ryu said to the brown puppet. He gave it a very small, polite nod.
Valt burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. Daigo covered his mouth, clearly trying to hide a smirk. Ken stared at Ryu in absolute awe. Most people either made fun of his puppets or awkwardly tried to talk to Ken directly while ignoring them. Ryu had just engaged with them as if they were entirely separate, sentient beings. It was the most validating experience Ken had ever had.
"Attention shoppers!" a voice crackled over the store's intercom. "We are hosting a special promotional challenge at the front register! Any blader who can clear the Trick-Shot Gauntlet in one launch will win a limited-edition, carbon-fiber launcher grip! Step right up!"
Valt gasped, his eyes shining like headlights. "A free grip! That solves everything! Come on!"
Valt sprinted toward the front of the store. Rantaro, Daigo, and Ken immediately followed. Ryu stood in the aisle for a moment, looking at his bottle of lubricant. He sighed, put it in his pocket to pay for later, and walked toward the front.
A large crowd had gathered around a specially designed stadium near the registers. It wasn't a normal arena. Instead of a standard basin, it was a long, rectangular track. Suspended above the track were three small, heavy metal pendulums swinging back and forth at different speeds. At the very end of the track was a small, circular target zone.
The store manager, wearing a referee uniform, stood next to it with a megaphone. "The rules are simple! Launch your Bey from the starting line. It must strike and knock down all three swinging pendulums, and then settle entirely inside the target zone! You only get one try!"
"I got this!" Valt cheered, shoving his way to the front. He locked Valkyrie onto his cracked launcher.
"Valt, wait," Daigo warned. "Look at the pendulum timing. They aren't synchronized. If you hit the first one too hard, you'll lose the momentum to reach the third."
"Don't worry! Valkyrie has plenty of speed!" Valt yelled. He dropped into his newly corrected stance. "Go Shoot!"
Valkyrie hit the track with a burst of massive speed. It tore down the plastic straightaway. It slammed into the first metal pendulum.
*Clang!*
The pendulum snapped backward, locked into the 'down' position. But Valkyrie had hit it dead center. The recoil was too severe. The blue Bey bounced erratically, completely missing the second swinging pendulum, and spun out against the wall of the track.
"Aw, man!" Valt groaned, picking up his Bey.
"You used way too much raw power," Rantaro sighed, stepping up. "You need a balance of weight and control. Let the Head Honcho show you how it's done."
Rantaro launched his stamina type, Ragnaruk. It hit the track smoothly. It struck the first pendulum, knocking it back. It slid forward and clipped the second pendulum, knocking it down as well. The crowd cheered.
But the impact drained too much of Ragnaruk's spin velocity. It limped toward the third pendulum, tapped it weakly, and stopped spinning right in front of the target zone.
"So close!" the manager announced.
Keru, the blue puppet on Ken's hand, barked loudly. "This thing is rigged! The pendulums are too heavy! You lose too much rotation on the impacts!"
"It is not rigged," Ryu said, stepping through the crowd. "It is just basic geometry."
The BeyClub parted for him. Ryu stopped at the starting line of the track. He didn't pull out his launcher immediately. He just stood there, his eyes tracking the swinging metal pendulums.
He counted the seconds in his head.
*Pendulum one: 1.2-second swing arc. Pendulum two: 0.8-second swing arc. Pendulum three: 1.5-second swing arc. Total track length: four meters.*
"Hey, if you think it's so easy, why don't you try?" Wakiya's voice suddenly cut through the crowd.
Ryu glanced over. Wakiya Murasaki was standing near the register, arms crossed, smirking. Apparently, high-end hobby shops attracted all the egos in the district.
"I don't need a launcher grip," Ryu said flatly.
"You just know you can't do it," Wakiya taunted. "A trick shot requires actual technique, not just sitting in the middle of a stadium."
Ryu looked at Wakiya. Then he looked down at Valt, who was holding his cracked launcher and looking incredibly disappointed.
Ryu reached into his jacket. He pulled out his heavy custom launcher and locked Nidhogg into place.
The store went completely quiet. Everyone had seen the tournament broadcasts. They knew who he was.
Ryu stepped up to the edge of the track. He didn't take a wide stance. He stood casually, holding the launcher at a slight angle. He waited. He watched the pendulums cross paths.
*Three... two... one.*
He flicked his wrist and pulled the cord.
It wasn't a heavy launch. It was sharp, precise, and completely silent.
Eclipse Nidhogg hit the very edge of the track. But it didn't go straight down the middle. Ryu had angled the launch so that the rubber driver caught the side wall immediately.
Nidhogg accelerated off the wall, darting diagonally across the track. It clipped the first pendulum on its extreme outer edge.
*Clink.* Because it hit the edge and not the center, Nidhogg didn't suffer severe recoil. It used the rounded impact to instantly ricochet toward the opposite wall. It bounced off the plastic, shooting diagonally again, perfectly threading the gap to strike the second pendulum from the side.
*Clink.* The crowd gasped.
Nidhogg ricocheted again, darting back across the track in a flawless zig-zag pattern. The timing was absolute perfection. As the third pendulum swung into the center, Nidhogg struck its edge.
*Clink.*
The third pendulum locked down. Nidhogg bounced off the final impact, landing perfectly inside the circular target zone at the end of the track. It spun there, humming quietly, completely undamaged.
The entire store was dead silent. Wakiya's jaw was practically resting on the floor.
Ryu walked down the length of the track, picked up Nidhogg, and slipped it into his pocket.
The manager finally recovered his voice. "W-We have a winner! A flawless ricochet launch! I've never seen anything like it!"
The crowd erupted into applause. Valt was jumping up and down, grabbing Rantaro by the shoulders and shaking him. Daigo just smiled behind his bandana. Ken's puppets were both cheering.
The manager handed Ryu a sleek, matte-black carbon-fiber launcher grip. It was high quality, wrapped in textured grip tape.
Ryu took it. He looked at it. It was completely useless to him; his custom launcher was machined from aircraft-grade aluminum.
He turned around and walked over to the BeyClub. He stopped in front of Valt and held out the grip.
"Here," Ryu said.
Valt blinked, staring at the grip, then up at Ryu. "Wait... for me? But you won it!"
"My current equipment is structurally superior to this," Ryu replied, his tone unchanging. "Your grip is fractured. If you use it in the quarter-finals, it will shatter, your launch angle will collapse, and the match will be incredibly boring. Fix your equipment."
Valt carefully took the grip. His eyes were watering. He looked like he was about to tackle Ryu with another hug.
Ryu immediately took a large step backward, raising a hand. "Do not."
Valt stopped, laughing, and wiped his eyes. "Thanks, Ryu! Seriously, this is awesome! I'm going to attach it right now!"
"You're a weird guy, O'Hara," Rantaro chuckled, resting his heavy hand on Ryu's shoulder. Ryu stiffened slightly at the contact but didn't pull away. "But you're alright."
Besu, the brown puppet, leaned forward. "Thank you for helping our friend!"
Ryu looked at the puppet and gave a slight nod. "You are welcome."
"Hey!" Wakiya yelled, pushing his way through the crowd toward them. He pointed an accusatory finger at Ryu. " Anyone could do that if they mapped the angles!"
Ryu pulled his bottle of bearing lubricant from his pocket. He looked at Wakiya, his expression perfectly blank.
"Your left shoelace is untied."
Wakiya froze. He aggressively looked down at his boots. Both laces were perfectly tied.
When he looked back up, Ryu was already walking toward the cash register to pay for his lubricant, leaving the BeyClub howling with laughter behind him.
---
Ten minutes later, the group was sitting on the concrete curb outside a local convenience store, bathed in the orange glow of the late afternoon sun.
Valt was happily munching on a blue ice pop, admiring his new carbon-fiber grip. Rantaro and Daigo were discussing bracket strategies. Ken was quietly listening, his puppets resting on his knees.
Ryu was sitting on the far end of the curb. He had bought a premium matcha ice cream bar. He took a slow, methodical bite.
It was loud. It was chaotic. Valt was accidentally dripping blue syrup onto his sneakers. Rantaro was talking too loudly about his next opponent.
Ryu looked at the bustling Tokyo street. He thought about the quiet, pristine training room back on the island. It was perfect. It was flawless. And looking back on it now, it felt entirely empty.
"Hey, Ryu!" Valt called out, leaning forward to look down the curb. "Do you want to come to the park with us tomorrow? We're going to do some practice battles before the tournament starts back up!"
Ryu stopped chewing. He looked at Valt. He looked at the rest of the group, who were all waiting for his answer. Even Wakiya, who had stalked out of the store in a rage, had proven to be an entertaining variable.
Ryu swallowed the matcha ice cream. He looked straight ahead at the traffic.
"I suppose I can spare a few hours," Ryu said quietly. "If only to ensure you don't break your new equipment."
Valt cheered, throwing his hands in the air.
Ryu took another bite of his ice cream. His quiet life was officially ruined. He was sitting on a dirty curb, surrounded by loud children and a boy who talked through dog puppets.
He didn't hate it at all.